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Homelessness increases in oil-rich N.D.

The director of an advocacy group says the number of homeless people is soaring in North Dakota.

Michael Carbone, executive director of the North Dakota Coalition for Homeless People, says desperate job seekers are flocking to the oil-rich state to try and land one of the thousands of unfilled jobs.

Volunteers counted a record 2,069 homeless people during a survey on Jan. 23. Carbone says that was a day in which temperatures were well below zero across much of the state.

The survey found that the number of "unsheltered" homeless people was 1,395. Carbone says that far exceeded those counted in the state's 25 emergency shelters that were full to capacity.

A similar survey Jan. 23 in South Dakota counted 537 homeless people, or about one-quarter of North Dakota's tally.